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Pity The Fools

I really don’t know how I let myself be talked into some things, and this episode is one of ’em. The boys purchased a Mr. T’s Water War backyard water-frolic toy. The gent who came in to sell was himself a character. Sporting a mohawk, he was (and probably remains) Mr. T’s #1 fan.

Seeing as how these products littered shelves back in the 1980s, $40 was MORE than a fair price. I remember being 15 years old and buying a Mr. T action figure, realizing I was WAY too old to be buying something as schlocky as that, and having it dawn on me that action figures should have MORE than five points of articulation. But more on T in a moment…

Non-sports trading cards… these are EITHER the bane of a comic shop’s existence, or the backbone of its sales. For Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, it is an albatross that has hung around our neck since even before Kevin purchased an existing comic book store (then called Comicology) and renamed it. Part of the inventory that came along was a huge cache of Super Hero cards. Now, for anyone who doesn’t follow the trends of comics (and unless you are a die-hard fan, why would you?), trading cards of the non-sport variety had their heyday in the ’60s and ’70s with “Mars Attacks” and the 1966 Batman TV series card set, and we can certainly count “Wacky Packages” and “Garbage Pail Kids” in there for good measure, and yes, I know that “Garbage Pail Kids” came out in the 80’s, but bear with me for a second. In this time period, sales were as good as they could get… but like all fads or trends, there was a resurgence, a period of time when the kids who grew up with something reach an age where A) they want to recapture a part of their youth, and B) they have disposable income to do so. And so cards came back in the mid-to-late ’90s. They still are around today, but they don’t have the sway they used to.

Aquawoman was a lot of fun. Cosplay gets a bad rap at the Stash, probably because none of us would be able to pull off wearing anything super-heroic. I also won’t even get into the whole licensed/unlicensed costume kerfluffle… that’s best left to greater legal minds than mine. The cold-cast Lady Death wall hanging was a pretty cool piece from a character that had some serious interest in the ’90s. Created by Brian Pulido over at CHAOS! Comics, she’s still around to this day.

As far as Teddy Ruxpin and Grubby go, I will admit that these toys freak me out. It’s one thing to go to Disney World and visit the Country Bear Jamboree or hit up the Hall of Presidents, but it is just TOO CREEPY to have these… things on a shelf, ready to turn themselves on and kill you in your sleep. And I am convinced that this was either the abandoned plot to Halloween 4, or what was supposed to happen if enough people purchased Teddy and Grubby. The gentleman selling them seemed harmless enough, but you never know.

As to Mr. T’s Water War, I believe that the actual workings did not come close to the design concept. Hitting T with a sponge didn’t give the cathartic release that hitting Bryan with a sponge did. And I have to wonder… what was up with Ming’s orange speedo?